


a kiss to build a dream on

by soofyahn



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: 50s au, Drabble, Fluff, M/M, greaser!zayn, square!liam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 21:13:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1564265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soofyahn/pseuds/soofyahn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>He spins on his heels, laughing a bit when he meets Zayn’s eyes as he leans over the fence. “Isn’t that the strangest thing you’ve ever heard?”</i>
</p>
<p> <i>Zayn smiles around the filter of his cigarette. He pulls it from his lips, smoke pouring from his lips. “Not quite.”</i></p>
<p>50s au where liam is silly and has a lot of big ideas and zayn isn't quite as tough as his leather jacket might lead on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a kiss to build a dream on

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this because i saw [this](http://shyall.tumblr.com/post/53485180276/a-new-era-one-direction-from-different-time) and it was stuck in my head all night and then i cranked this little beauty out in like 30 minutes. shout out to [alana](http://archiveofourown.org/users/shadesofmediocrity) for being awake when i had the courage to share this with the world at 4am american time.
> 
> title credit goes to the louis armstrong song of the same name because it gave me feelings.

 

 

“I think I’m in love,” Liam says, feeling wild and a little drunk, although he’s never had a taste of alcohol in his life. He spins on his heels, laughing a bit when he meets Zayn’s eyes as he leans over the fence. “Isn’t that the strangest thing you’ve ever heard?”

Zayn smiles around the filter of his cigarette. He pulls it from his lips, smoke pouring from his lips. “Not quite.”

“I never thought in a hundred years…” Liam says, eyes trailing to watch the way Zayn’s lips wrap around the filter again. He feels wild and a little drunk but also a little dizzy, and that might tie into the whole drunk feeling, but he’s not so sure. None of his feelings feel quite so connected anymore, the sensation in his legs a little different than the thrumming in his veins, the fluttering in his chest.

“Never thought what?” Zayn prompts, still smiling. He looks awfully silly in that leather jacket with that blush painting his cheeks. He doesn’t look hard at all, anymore. He looks like the silliest person Liam’s ever met.

Liam knows he’s awful square, especially in comparison to someone like Zayn. It used to make him feel a little out of his element, his average haircut and polite mannerisms and neatly ironed shirts. His mum was tidy, is all. Liam’s doesn’t know much about Zayn’s mum, but he’d like to think she’s still a nice lady despite Zayn’s frequently wrinkled white tees and how his jacket always smells of cigarette smoke.

“Never thought I’d fall for someone like you,” Liam admits, bumping his hip to Zayn’s, who laughs a charming laugh. A very nice word, that is. Liam is charmed by Zayn. His eyes and coy smile and greaser hair, how he looks hard but isn’t hard at all, nothing but soft corners and shy glances. He is not rough or gritty or tough at all, really. Liam likes that an awful lot about him. Loves it, even.

“What? Another man?” Zayn says, raising his eyebrows as he takes another drag.

“No,” Liam says, and he’s blushing, now. “I mean, well, yes, but - you’re all…I don’t know. You’re quite funny. You make people think all of these things about you in your dress and talk and music, but you’re not like any of those things.”

“Hm,” Zayn replies, considering this. “I’m a phony, then?”

“The phoniest,” Liam agrees, only half-joking with him. He lets his hands wander so that he’s touching Zayn’s hip, Zayn leaning into the touch immediately.

“Took someone as clever as you to see through my charade, then,” Zayn admits. He stomps his cigarette into the ground and turns closer to Liam, dark eyelashes blinking slowly.

“Yeah,” Liam whispers, soft as he can manage, because Zayn is growing closer to him and his heart rate is picking up and they’re in the park and there could be people around, but Liam doesn’t care, right now he cares about those plush lips and –

It’s quite a new thing, kissing men, but it’s an awfully nice thing. Liam likes the feeling of Zayn’s leather jackets underneath his palms and denim-clad thighs and thick hair. He likes ordering burgers for Zayn at the diner on 10th street and he likes bumping elbows with him as they walk the streets, accidentally but not quite accidental at all. He likes taking Zayn for rides in his new car, the leather of his seats hot under his thighs when Zayn is panting over him in the back seat, and how flushed Zayn gets when Liam sucks bruises into his skin and claws at his chest. He likes sneaking glances in record shops as they dance their fingertips between the shelves, likes the smell of Zayn’s aftershave and all his white t-shirts and those funny boots he wears, wondering if he even owns a proper cardigan or set of pants.

It’s a little scary, for things are awfully scary during these times. Thoughts are changing and music is changing and people are challenging the rules, rules that have existed long before Liam or Zayn were a thought their respective parents’ minds, rules that are so old they might not mean anything at all anymore. Thoughts and ideas are getting bigger and scarier each day, Liam thinks. One day, Liam thinks wistfully, he might not have to worry about someone watching the two of them exchange kisses, sidelong glances, blushing cheeks. One day, they might not have to worry about anything at all.

Zayn pulls away, glancing to the side quickly before reconnecting their gaze.

“Getting brave there, Li,” he tells him softly, a sense of wonder in his voice.

Liam blushes yet again, “Only when I’m with you.”

It’s maybe one of the truest things he’s ever said, right along with the phrase that started this whole conversation, about love and being in it with this impossible boy. He feels his heart rate kick up when Zayn looks pretty damned pleased with him, a mix of wonder and curiosity and joy all displayed in his bright eyes and lazy smile.

Liam likes to think these big thoughts and ideas are only starting, and it’s the beginning of a big change, and maybe he can take courses about these things at university and carry these big thoughts into the world and make them bigger. He thinks maybe it’s more important than kissing other men. He thinks it’s about knowing love is more than a bashful girl in a dress and a smooth-taking guy in a collared shirt. It can be two silly people who don’t understand rules and laugh at routine and tradition and appreciate how phony people can be and still fall in love with them anyway. Finding wonder in how silly and unhinged someone can be about almost nothing at all and blushing anyway. Love can be a lot of things, Liam thinks.

“I think I’m in love with you too, for the record,” Zayn murmurs softly, eyes full of so many promises, and big, big ideas.

Liam feels more than a little drunk, although he’d only shared a Coke with Zayn over lunch, although there’s nothing perplexing and befuddling at all about being in love in itself, only in the side-effects of clumsy thoughts, spinning on his heels, and holding extravagant heartbeats underneath his palms.

“That’s wonderful to hear,” Liam admits, giggling because he’s nothing short of ridiculous but knowing Zayn’s fond of him anyhow.

As proof, Zayn rolls his eyes and doesn’t even glance around before tilting Liam’s chin to attach their lips again.

 

 


End file.
